Another insult to our parliamentary democracy?

Finally, after months of confusion and uncertainty, the PKR elected state rep for Port Klang Badrul Hisham Abdullah has finally resigned from his party and declared himself a "BN friendly" independent state assemblyman.

In doing so, he has betrayed his party and above all the thousands of voters who elected him into office.

If he is honourable, he should resign from his seat and let a by-election choose his replacement.

Honour is not a commodity found in abundance in Malaysian politics. So Badrul will "serve" to the end of his term I suppose, adding yet another insult to our fledgling parliamentary democracy.

For months now, we have heard that this fellow is a "non-performing rep" in PKR; top leaders have been calling for him to resign.

Then, there are those who claim that whether an elected rep of the people performs or not is a matter of subjective judgement.

Or is it?

The answer to the question of whether an elected representative of the people performs or not cannot be found in the text books of any university course.

It cannot be answered by interviewing the rakyat either, because our voters' level of political consciousness and their expectation of their wakil rakyat in general are not that impressive.

When I was a wakil rakyat and an office bearer in a political party long ago, this issue was often discussed within many party internal seminars. The question was often asked: what should be the role of the wakil rakyat? That question is still relevant today.

First of all, a wakil rakyat is a member of the legislature.

A rep is an all rounder

He is a law maker. He is paid by the federal or state legislature.

That means he has to attend legislative meetings regularly, and take an active part in the debates, to voice out the problems of the people. In the process, he must also learn about government business, public administration and public finance.

A good rep will equip himself with pretty intimate knowledge about policy matters, and he will develop and consult his network of private advisors who are experts in that area.

In the US, members of the Senate and the Congress are very powerful. They can initiate their own pieces of legislature that would also involve large sums of public funds for their project.

In Malaysia, backbenchers are expected to vote blindly according to party lines only.

There is a provision for any member of the house to move a Private Member's Bill, and I cannot remember any such bill being presented for debate and a vote.

Our legislators are far from being effective in influencing the legislative proceedings.

The second important role of the elected rep is to "serve" his electorates.

This is born out of his moral obligation to his entire electorate and his need to be seen as people friendly in order to get re-elected.

That means setting up an office in his constituency, where he has support staff and equipment to help with problems faced by individuals or groups.

Our YB must be readily available to his constituents, not only those who vote for him, but also those who vote against him.

In an urban constituency like Port Klang, there must be numerous small problems facing the rakyat everyday, from traffic congestion, garbage problems, blocked drains, petty trading, and road repairs.

Solving micro and macro problems

The people expect their YB to be accessible and help them solve these small problems.

It is no use telling the rakyat that these are not the YB's responsibility, and they should approach the local councillors.

The local councillor will also say this is not their responsibility which is to look at policy issues in the local council only.

Our government bureaucracy is so opaque and so inaccessible that the rakyat expect their YB to be the intermediary between them and the government.

If a YB can do this part of his job well, he can be assured of being elected again and again for many terms, even if he is in the opposition.

Tan Kok Wai in the DAP is a fine example. He is invincible in his opposition stronghold of Cheras because of his long record of daily service to his electorate.

This is probably the hardest job for any serving YB. He will come across all kinds of unreasonable requests from many unreasonable voters who come in all shapes and sizes.

(I was once asked by a lady to locate her husband who had run off with his "boyfriend" to the USA. It could be done, but it was not worth the trouble.)

This part of a YB's job is a golden opportunity for him to train himself in the most thorny field of problem solving at the individual and the mass levels.

It also allows him to build up a useful network of contacts, informants, and fund-raisers.

A good YB who keeps his ears on the ground will know important happenings in all corners of his constituency.

Everybody knows your name

Naturally, such a good YB would have a good working relationship with the local communities, the local councils, government ministries and departments, the police, and even the underworld.

The third arm of a YB's job is to act as a standard bearer and a leader of his party.

He should constantly strive to entrench and widen the influence and prestige of his party, by publicising his party activities, and make public statements on developing issues affecting the public.

He should build the party structure in his constituency, lead recruitment and training programmes for new members and cadres.

Above all, he has to organise and oversee fund-raising agenda to finance the operating expense of his office, and his election campaign when a general election is held.

In this, he is always a manager, a trouble-shooter, a peace maker, and a mediator, so that the many different individual members in his party can work like a piece of humming and efficient machinery.

If the YB is also a national leader in the party, then he will have to run all over the country on various assignments.

He has to drive or get on an airplane to travel great distances to visit his party members in remote corners of the country.

And that leaves him very little time for his wife and children.

Above all, he has to endure poverty and live a clean spartan lifestyle.

The pay for MP and state assemblyperson (SA) is really not that much, and if you work full-time as an elected rep, there is a lot of personal and party expenses to take care of.

Living beyond their means would make them vulnerable to all kinds of personal problems and open them to the temptation of corruption in one form or another.

Good riddance to...

A good dedicated elected rep would have performed all the three aspects of his duty I have outlined above.

You would immediately retort to me that my requirements for a performing rep are very stringent, and most people would not want to be a model YB.

You are right! Many people who are qualified to be good YBs are not prepared to make so much sacrifices for so little personal return, and it is very difficult for political parties - especially those in the opposition - to recruit the right people for the job.

Most suitably qualified people are more inclined to sit back, build up their business or profession, and raise their family, rather than dirtying their hands in the mucky water of politics.

This unwillingness of good people to dedicate themselves to the great vocation of promoting good politics has allowed the opportunistic and the incompetent to crowd the current political field.

These are the ones who are always jostling to be party candidates and fighting for positions within their party.

They exist and thrive in every political party in Malaysia.

That was probably the problem with PKR before the March 8 general election last year.

There must have been many capable and honest people who would make good candidates and YBs, but they were reluctant to join an opposition party like the PKR.

So the PKR had to field whatever unsatisfactory material at hand. This fellow Badrul must have been one of those candidates at hand.

Actually I am glad this fellow has decided to leave PKR.

It is part of the house-cleaning exercise that a growing evolving party like PKR has to go through.

The same applies to Gabriel Adit in Sarawak and Jeffery Kitingan in Sabah.

Good riddance to toxic assets.

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SIM KWANG YANG can be reached at kenyalang578@hotmail.com.